Seven Chrome alternatives for browsing on Android

If you’re an Android device owner, chances are you’re using Google’s Chrome for your most of your web browsing activities. After all, the app comes pre-installed on the majority of Android devices. Did you know there are Chrome alternatives?

Chrome is great and all, but at some point, you might find yourself wanting to try something else. Fortunately, there are dozens of great web browsers for Android, each offering a unique blend of features that can offer a smooth mobile browsing experience.

Deciding which is the best for you is often a matter taste, but some web browsing apps simply stand out. Can’t decide which one should you try next? Luckily, we’ve put together a list of robust Chrome alternatives, or mobile browsers you can choose from.

Ghostery

Since privacy is such an important issue these days, you might want to consider installing Ghostery. Build around a tracker blocker – a tool meant to prevent advertising and audience measurement networks from gathering your data – Ghostery lets you surf around the web unnoticed while giving you the option to disable the trackers you don’t want.

Additional privacy options include quick and easy access to clear cookies, cache, and granular history. What’s more, the app also includes an incognito “Ghost Mode” and requests only minimal permissions (for location, photos/media/files, and Wi-Fi connection info), much fewer than other browsers.

Mozilla Firefox and Firefox Focus

The majority of desktop users are familiar with Mozilla’s Firefox browser, and the good news is that its mobile version is also available – in two flavors. There’s the classic Firefox which offers things like extension-support, AdBlock Plus and LastPass, password manager.

And then there’s Firefox Focus, which as the name suggests, is a mobile browser which targets privacy-focused users. The app boasts a stripped-down, streamlined interface that hides pesky ads and shows things like how many trackers are currently being blocked on a particular website. It also constantly reminds you to delete your browsing history.

The app is perfect for users who are short on space, as it weighs merely 4MB.

Samsung Internet Browser

Samsung’s Experience Browser is a surprisingly good option when it comes to browsing the web on your mobile device. It’s only recently that Samsung made the app available for all Android users (with devices running Android L or above), so you won’t need to have a Samsung phone in order to be able to take advantage of it.

The app boasts a host of useful features like the controls at the bottom (for back, forward, home, bookmarks, and tabs, although the URL bar remains at the top), true full-screen viewing, reader mode or high contrast mode.

It also comes pre-installed with extensions like CloseBy mode – a tool which gathers info about your surroundings from beacons, but also lets you add extra extensions like an ad-blocker.

Dolphin

Dolphin has one of the most impressive lists of features you’ll find in any mobile browser. It supports a handful of useful tricks like letting you search for things with your voice or allowing users to bookmark web pages by virtue of finger gestures.

The mobile browser supports add-ons, tabbed browsing, private browsing and password syncing. On top of that, there’s a Flash player, a pop-up blocker, incognito browsing mode and Themes to customize the look of your browser by choosing from a wide range of backgrounds in the wallpaper library.

Brave

Brave is an open source browser which like Chrome is based on Chromium. It has HTTPS everywhere which means you get secure encrypted data traffic. The app can block anything from pop-ups and scripts to third party cookies, to ensure no one or nothing is tracking you.

With Brave, you’ll also find the usual features found in a browser meaning tabbed browsing, bookmarks, and an incognito mode. It attempts to stand out from the crowd by touting speed and battery life optimizations.

Opera Mini

Users who have been loving the Opera experience on desktop can take advantage of the same great experience on mobile with Opera Mini.

The browser comes equipped with everything you’d need for a rich mobile browsing experience. There’s a built-in ad blocker, a new search bar that can scan QR codes, private browsing, and form autocompletion.

What’s more, if you sign up with an Opera account, you can sink your sessions across other devices (provided you’ve signed-in there too).

Naked Browser

In the search of a blazing fast mobile browsing experience? Naked Browser is your friend. Yes, it looks minimalist to the extreme, but it conserves resources so your pages can load faster. It’s perfect for budget and enter-level device owners who can’t afford to download a more resource intensive app. Fortunately, it offers basic features like bookmarks, history, and shortcuts.

The developer also tells us, the browser won’t spy on you, unlike other browsers, so at least in theory, you can rest easy that the app won’t’ collect any of your private info.

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